Cayucos are Maya dugout wooden canoes. They are one of the main means of transportation in Santiago at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. The village is populated by the Tz'utujil Mayans.
The lake provides some fishing although less and less because of decades of overfishing and increase in consumption. People who work in agriculture on the surrounding shores will use the Cayucos to get from the village of Santiago to their property or rented land. A large amount of land is not accessible by roads.
Usually the small farmers leave early in the morning at sunrise, to cross the water and reach the land that they work on. Sometimes they are alone sometimes they come with their children or a dog as companion.
The Cayucos are also used to transport goods that they have harvested and to bring it to the village. They produce vegetables like onions, tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage, corn and firewood. Depending on the season they harvest Mangoes, Avocados, coffee and black beans. One of the new exotic fruits as does the pitaya that is the newest export product of Santiago Atitlan; it is the fruit of cactus that needs a lot of sun and heat to mature to ripen.
Fisherman are out on the lake early in the morning, in the evening or during the day, depending on what they are fishing.
It is not easy to manage a cayuco, the process is dificult to learn. The first time people try to use a cayuco on their own they usually go only in cirles and have great dificulty controling the direction of the cayuco. We have photografed cayucos for many years at the lake, they never cease to fascinate us.
Picture: Barbara Schieber, Cayucos, Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala
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